Attention all Knifemakers!.....Product dealers/retailers and/or knife makers/sharpeners/hobbyists (etc) are not permitted to insert business related text/videos/images (company/company name/product references) and/or links into your signature line, your homepage url (within the homepage profile box), within any posts, within your avatar, nor anywhere else on this site. Market research (such as asking questions regarding or referring to products/services that you make/offer for sale or posting pictures of finished projects) is prohibited. These features are reserved for supporting vendors and hobbyists.....Also, there is no need to announce to the community that you are a knifemaker unless you're trying to sell something so please refrain from sharing.
Thanks for your co-operation!

Help Support Kitchen Knife Forums by donating using the link above or becoming a Supporting Member.

Hi Guys! I was waiting to respond to this thread when I found out the result of my qualifying exam. The exam is a three day, comprehensive exam covering all of the fundamentals of Metallurgy. One 6 hour written exam on general Metallurgy, one 4 hour exam on one of three topics (I chose Phase Transformations and Kinetics), and one 2 hour oral exam on fundamentals related to my research. I was required to pass it as part of my PhD program. You are given two chances to pass the exam. If failed twice then the only option is a Masters degree. The exam is offered once a semester, and required several weeks to prepare for, so failing it once basically means an extra semester before completing the PhD.

Anyway, I found out only 15 minutes ago that I passed the qualifying exam. Preparing for it (and taking it) were very stressful for me and my family. I spent many sleepless nights worrying about the exam and it is a great relief to finally be done with it.

In other news of my graduate studies, I am done with all of the classes that I have to take. I have been doing research in the area of automotive sheet steel, specifically Dual-Phase steel. You can see a (very) brief summary statement on the topic of my research on my student page: http://aspprc.mines.edu/ASP-stu-lthomas Automotive steel is very important because of the upcoming governmental requirements on fuel economy, requiring lighter vehicles, so the development of high strength, low cost, easily formable steels is being investigated from many different angles. I'm researching the effect of heating rate on advanced automotive steels because higher heating rates can reduce the time and therefore the cost of production.

Excellent, congratulations, this is a big step - and I imagine a big relief. The whole dissertation thing should be easy from now on as long as you get yourself to just get it done. Always remember: Right now there is probably nobody who knows as much about this topic as you do after researching it for all this time.... Good luck,